Showtime’s new series “Kidding” stars Jim Carrey as Jeff Pickles, a beloved children’s TV host, in the actor’s first series regular role in more than two decades.

The idea of Carrey playing a beloved kids’ icon might sound like its a setup for satire, but “Kidding” has other aims.

“It wasn’t about crafting an arc about a psycho Mr. Rogers,” says Dave Holstein, the show’s creator. “This is about a character, in this age of darkness and lies and bullying, who just wants to be good.”

Carrey, of course, has played sweetly innocent before, most notably in his Golden Globe-winning role in Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show.”

“The search for identity, who we are, what’s an authentic person is a theme that’s always been attractive to me,” says the actor, dressed in black, his hair long in what he quips is his “teenage runaway” look.

“I think there’s definitely something in this piece of being hit by a freight train in life and trying to hang on to the idea of yourself that you had before it happened, and that’s an incredible concept to me,” he adds.

What Carrey is referring to is the death of his character’s son in a car crash. When “Kidding” begins, we find Jeff a year down the road, separated from his wife and other son and fumbling around as he tries to come to terms with his grief.

Yet he continues on with his show, not out of greed, but because of who he is, someone who brings joy to others.

On the other hand, his father, Sheb (played by Frank Langella), monetized his son’s innocent, fun idea for a kids’ show and doesn’t want Jeff to do anything to jeopardize “Mr. Pickles” as a cash cow even as he is worried his son will have a breakdown.

Besides the terrific Langella,” “Kidding” also boasts some top talent in Judy Greer as Jeff’s wife and Catherine Keener as his sister and puppet-master on “Mr. Pickles,” which has the look of a real kids’ show.

Having been a producer-writer on “Weeds,” which as “full of antiheroes,” Holstein was interested in writing a character “who didn’t want to break bad.”

“So to me it was about finding someone who had a crisis of faith but really wanted to preserve their goodness in a world that was populated by all the dark edges,” he says about creating Mr. Pickles.

When the showrunner began writing the character in 2010, he immediately thought of Jim Carrey for the role, but never imagined he would one day actually have him onboard.

“Kidding” also reunites Carrey with Michel Gondry, his “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director, who serves as an executive producer and directed several episodes of the 10-episode first season.

“I was incredibly interested in the material already,” says Carrey, “but when Michel came on board, I thought, ‘I get to go play with a teammate, and that’s really wonderful.’”

In approaching the character, Carrey first thought about children shows like “Captain Kangaroo” and “Mr. Dressup,” a Canadian series he watched as a kid.

“Those are the things I grew up with, and they were just wonderful,” says the 56-year-old Toronto-area native. “But I quickly kind of threw those out and started watching movies. Jimmy Stewart was always my favorite.”

The Hollywood icon excelled at playing innocent good guys in films like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and Jeff Pickles has that sort of likable naiveté, only in a much more skeptical world.

Carrey says he enjoys working with Gondry because the filmmaker pushes him in new directions.

“When we started to work on ‘Kidding,’ it was very simple,” says the French director. “I just had to tell Jim what I wanted in the most basic ways, and he would try anything out. He had no ego.”

As a comic, Carrey sees his career as being something like being a cliff diver. “Basically that’s where I live. It’s either people are really going to admire what I just said or I’m done.”

Adding: “Whatever you’re being given may be terrifying, but if you look at it the right way, you become stronger because of it.”

With numerous successes over his own 30-plus year career, Carrey says his interest now lies in being involved with “as many wonderful artists and to be as creative as humanly possible.”

“The fact is, I want to know things,” he says flatly. “Right now, there’s just a lot of creative things happening in a lot of different directions, and this, to me, is a jewel that came my way and was presented to me at a perfect time when I am well-schooled and experienced enough to do this part.”

One of Carrey’s other outlets has been making news recently. Since 2016, Carrey has created more than a hundred cartoons focused on the Trump Administration and posted them on Twitter.

“I do cartoons because I can’t just watch this nightmare unfold. I have to make it into something,” he says.

“It’s not a choice; it’s just happening. It’s reflex to what I don’t like. It’s a civilized way of dealing with it, to express and get on board with as many voices as possible that are shouting from the rooftops.”

Carrey sees it – the TV shows, the cartoons – as all part of his creative process. There’s no set plan to it, he says, but he does seem to have a philosophy about it.

Rob Lowman began at the L.A. Daily News working in editing positions on the news side, including working on Page 1 the day the L.A. Riots began in 1992. In 1993, he made the move to features, and in 1995 became the Entertainment Editor for 15 years. He returned to writing full time in 2010. Throughout his career he has interviewed a wide range of celebrities in the arts. The list includes the likes of Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood to Kristin Stewart and Emma Stone in Hollywood; classical figures like Yo Yo Ma and Gustavo Dudamel to pop stars like Norah Jones, Milly Cyrus and Madonna; and authors such as Joseph Heller, John Irving and Lee Child. Rob has covered theater, dance and the fine arts as well as reviewing film, TV and stage. He has also covered award shows and written news stories related to the entertainment business. A longtime resident of Santa Clarita, Rob is still working on his first more-than-30-year marriage, has three grown children (all with master's degrees) and five guitars.